There is an increasing need to identify callers and to monitor communications in controlled environments, such as corrections facilities, military bases, or other such government institution. Voice identification systems are needed when the speaker is not otherwise known. The present invention will materially contribute to countering terrorism from increased detection and surveillance of unauthorized telephone calls within secure facilities such as prisons or other government facilities. The proliferation of unauthorized cellular telephone in prisons increases the chance that high-risk inmates may continue to plan illegal activities even while in detention. Traditional means of monitoring of all telephone traffic may be impractical, may infringe civil liberties of non-inmates, or may simply be ineffective. Only a small portion of telephone calls between inmates and the outside are actually monitored because of limited resources.
Prior art solutions providing caller identification using voice biometrics have limitations. Prior art formal enrollment of users is an especially cumbersome and time-consuming process because a reliable prior art enrollment requires a substantial amount of speech to be captured and typically requires cooperation of the caller. To date, this has limited the adoption of voice biometrics as a means of telephone-based authentication in secure facilities.
Systems of the prior art typically compare a voice sample from the speaker against an existing library of previously-acquired and archived Biometric Voice Prints (BVPs). Verification typically occurs only at the beginning of an interaction and, once achieved, is considered as valid for the whole interaction. This does not allow for instances wherein the validation of the individual's identity can be completed correctly, but the interaction is then taken up by another party. This is a serious potential flaw for those interactions requiring a very high standard of identity verification.
What is needed is a voice recognition system that monitors the identity of the actual speakers continuously over the lifetime of a call originated in either direction.
US Patent application 2013/0044867 to Walters et al. teaches the use of voice biometric software to analyze inmate telephone calls. A system and method for managing and controlling telephone activity in a correctional facility comprises providing a first communicative connection between a caller and a recipient, delivering the conversation between the caller and the recipient over the first communicative connection and executing voice biometrics software to evaluate the conversation. A detection response is executed based upon the evaluation of the biometrics software.
Incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 9,237,232 to Williams et al. discloses systems and methods for analyzing digital recordings of the human voice in order to find characteristics unique to an individual. A biometrics engine may use an analytics service in a contact center to supply audio streams based on configured rules and providers for biometric detection. The analytics service may provide ca audio data and attributes to connected engines based on a provider-set of selection rules. The connected providers send call audio data and attributes through the analytics service. The engines are notified when a new call is available for processing and can then retrieve chunks of audio data and call attributes by polling an analytics service interface. A mathematical model of the human vocal tract in the call audio data is created and/or matched against existing models. The result is analogous to a fingerprint, i.e., a pattern unique to an individual to within some level of probability.
The system has no disclosed capability for continuously monitoring the identity of the caller over the lifetime of a call, nor for ensuring that the same persons are talking through the call, nor to generate an alert if another party is added to the call. Further, the system is directed to identifying an incoming caller but makes no provision for identifying the receiving party as well, which can be vital within a secure environment such as a prison. Further, the system is not configured for identification of persons outside a secure environment who are receiving calls from within the secure environment.
Systems of the prior art are also limited in their focus on the calling party as opposed to the called party. Inmates, in particular, are generally allowed to call only a restricted list of phone numbers, typically family or friends. No prior art system currently is able to verify the identity of the called party, which could be a major source of fraud.
In current systems, calls are typically initiated by the inmate to the outside world. However, there is a need for telephone systems that can identify callers from the outside while allowing such callers to initiate calls and leave voice-mails for inmates, although the practical impossibility of formally enrolling every potential caller has prevented the deployment of such solutions.
Currently, biometric identification is not used in voicemail systems as part of communications networks in secure facilities in part because of the difficulty in identifying callers. This is a major security risk since most of the communication allowed in a correctional environment is based on the premise that the facility always knows who is involved in the conversation. Current generation voicemail products do very little, if anything, to identify the person that is leaving the message for the inmate. The prior art process is usually as follows, though some variations exist among providers:                1) friend/family member calls a toll-free number;        2) IVR provides the option for Voice Mail; this could be one of many options for the caller;        3) system checks that funds are available in the friend and family member's prepaid account (this process could occur in a different order);        4) once the Voice Mail option is selected, the following options may exist in the system:                    a) the system may check to see what inmates have called the caller; these would be the options/inmates that are offered to the caller to leave a Voice Mail;            b) alternatively, the system may ask the caller to input the inmate ID of the inmate for whom the caller would like to leave a message; (Note that the system could theoretically search for the inmate as well, based on name, etc.)                        5) caller leaves a Voice Mail up to a time limit (limits range typically from one to three minutes).        
There is therefore a need for a system capable of accurately and automatically identifying the caller without the need for a formal enrollment process or specialized staff, and capable of ensuring that the same person(s) is talking throughout a call.